Ben Crane captured his fifth PGA TOUR title at the FedEx St. Jude Classic yesterday. His first win since 2011 vaulted him into 41st position in the FedEx cup standings and guarantees his return to the playoffs in late August.
Crane built a six-stroke lead with opening rounds of 63 and 65 and then held on to win by one with closing rounds of 69 and 73. In his first two rounds he gained a remarkable 8.0 strokes with his putter. By the end of the tournament, his total gain from putting was 8.8 strokes. He beat the field by 13.1 strokes, so putting contributed 67% to his scoring advantage over the field. Crane’s stellar putting in the first two rounds of the tournament contributed 61% of his total strokes gained.
The ShotLink Intelligence data powered by CDW allows us to examine Crane’s putting in more detail. We see that 58% of his gain from putting came from putts in the 7 to 21 foot range with the rest of the gain nearly evenly split between short (0-6 feet) and long (22 feet and over) putts.
| Strokes gained putting per round | |||||
| Total | 0-6 ft | 7-21 ft | 22+ ft | ||
| Strokes gained rank | 1 | 11 | 4 | 10 | |
| Strokes gained | 2.19 | 0.48 | 1.26 | 0.44 | |
Crane was ranked 14 in approach play (shots starting outside of 100 yards from the hole, excluding tee shots on par-4 and par-5 holes). He gained 4.4 strokes on the field with his approach shots, which contributed 34% to his scoring advantage on the field. His strokes gained in the short game (shots inside 100 yards, excluding putt) was balanced by his strokes lost with his driving.
Here’s a strokes gained box score for the top ten finishers at FedEx St. Jude Classic:
| Strokes gained rank | |||||
| Golfer | Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt |
| Ben Crane | 1 | 65 | 14 | 19 | 1 |
| Troy Merritt | 2 | 29 | 5 | 64 | 2 |
| Matt Every | T3 | 27 | 33 | 21 | 5 |
| Carl Pettersson | T3 | 3 | 7 | 59 | 24 |
| Webb Simpson | T3 | 10 | 31 | 2 | 37 |
| Ian Poulter | T6 | 34 | 13 | 29 | 22 |
| Andrew Svoboda | T6 | 25 | 11 | 15 | 39 |
| James Hahn | T6 | 45 | 2 | 47 | 16 |
| Brian Harman | T6 | 4 | 43 | 30 | 14 |
| Billy Horschel | T6 | 8 | 26 | 5 | 46 |
| Strokes gained per round | |||||
| Golfer | Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt |
| Ben Crane | 3.27 | -0.54 | 1.10 | 0.53 | 2.19 |
| Troy Merritt | 3.02 | 0.27 | 1.41 | -0.54 | 1.87 |
| Matt Every | 2.77 | 0.34 | 0.58 | 0.46 | 1.39 |
| Carl Pettersson | 2.77 | 1.19 | 1.38 | -0.49 | 0.69 |
| Webb Simpson | 2.77 | 0.69 | 0.63 | 1.07 | 0.38 |
| Ian Poulter | 2.52 | 0.25 | 1.23 | 0.21 | 0.83 |
This post appeared originally on pgatour.com here